Civcon Project Stilfontein: 20 -24 July ‘09

Civcon Project Stilfontein: 20 -24 July ‘09

The cold eventually got to me and I became ill, missing Monday and Tuesday of this week. When I returned on Wednesday I fell straight into the rhythm again and went with the team to facilitate a PACT agreement with one of the Supervisors and his team. This was insightful but I think it might have a stronger impact if it was possible to make the PACT closer to the training. When I asked about it, Johan told me that it is usually done straight after training has finished but with the issues with Dokes’ health it was delayed a little. I found it is good to ask these types of questions to gain the knowledge on the BBS and ST&D process rollout. Wednesday also saw the Management team do their planned observations on site and this went fairly well. I feel like sticking my neck out and saying that spending time on a BBS or a ST&D process, without the full commitment of the site management, is a futile exercise. If there is even the slightest indication that the Site Management value production and deadlines more than the safety of the employees or even the ST&D process, the trust that the process tries to create between the management and the employees is broken before it even exists. In my opinion, there has to be immense focus on the management’s perception at the start of the process to ensure their buy-in and commitment towards safety as a whole. One other thing that I have realised is how big a deal the communication gap is in South Africa as a whole.
On Thursday we started with another PACT agreement for one of the teams on site. I also needed to perform some admin functions. I had to distribute the Supervisors Team PACT agreement among the Supervisors and on a windy and dusty day like Thursday I saw one or two papers fly like birds. Anyway, at least I got to all of the supervisors and they received their PACT agreement. I also had to see to it that the critical tools and equipment checklist was loaded into the software. Unfortunately there is a problem with keywords in the new software that means we cannot upload the critical tools and equipment checklists. The checklists will have to be uploaded once this problem has been sorted out. Needless to say, parallel to these functions we also had to continue with our observations and these were handed to the data capturer to enter into the software.On Friday, the routine tasks continued and we needed to gather the information for the Site Weekly reports. There are two reports as mentioned before but at this stage the “new” PowerPoint report is on hold as the content thereof has to be clarified. Some of the observations and daily reports needed were not yet captured by the site data capturer and as a result some statistics from the software that had to be added to the report could only be put in on Monday. We made two more team PACT agreements and these had to be compiled in PowerPoint which I did later in the day. So, to next week we go.

Civcon Project Stilfontein: 13 - 17 July ‘09

Civcon Project Stilfontein: 13 - 17 July ‘09

This week started slowly, with Dokes unfortunately still ill. Monday was a straight forward day but high paced. We did observations and coaching in the morning and the afternoon. In between we did the data capturing and daily reports. Not much to mention here although it is still insightful to see the process in action. Tuesday morning was also par for the course, with observations and coaching done on an extremely cold day. In the afternoon Patrick came by and looked at some of the things and also showed us a new weekly report presentation in PowerPoint that he wants BBS teams to use. This is basically to communicate at risk behaviours and site conditions to the site management, so that they can see what their most at risk occupations are and then focus their attention on that accordingly. Patrick spent most of the afternoon on this. On Wednesday it was business as usual with more site visits, observations and coaching. Needless to say, the data capturing followed… Apart from the usual suspects, Johan Deysel arrived on site. He is going to succeed Dokes here as the process champion. With Dokes being promoted to project manager, a new process champion had to be assigned and Johan transferred here after he finished a previous project.
Thursday saw Johan having to go to induction, and afterwards Leonard and I took him to site to get to know the lay of the land. At this stage, Dokes has been off site for two weeks and the updated Project Plan is with him. This is a bit of a headache because our work is being done kind of “blindly”. We are continuing with the necessities but certain things are lagging behind as a result. Things are just a little slow at this stage, but it will pick up just as soon as Dokes gets back to hand over to Johan. This will at least see Johan updated and then he can start leading and indicating the direction in which things have to progress.
On Friday, we got started with the planning for the Supervisors PACT agreements and we also worked on the two weekly reports that needed to be compiled. The new report posed some problems on a site as big as the one we are at. Once Johan has spoken to Patrick about it there will probably be some more clarity on what exactly has to be incorporated and what not. The project has now started moving into phase two and some of the structures that are finished already will be duplicated to enlarge the capacity of the processing plant. This can be a problem as the employees may become careless with the work that they have done successfully previously. As a team, the Safety department need to be vigilant with their approach to the work being done in phase two, to ensure the that all employees adhere to the PACT that they have made with their team. But for this week that is it.

Civcon Project Stilfontein: 6 - 10 July ‘09

Civcon Project Stilfontein: 6 - 10 July ‘09

When we arrived on Monday we were once again greeted by cold, the sound of earth works machinery moving and the smell of diesel engines running all over the place. Dokes didn’t arrive and he let us know that he was admitted to hospital with some kind of sickness. But we didn’t let that stop us to get stuck in and finish up the last work that we didn’t finish on Friday. Through out the week we kept doing observations and processing them into the software. Both the old and new software has to be populated as we are basically the guinea pigs to test out the new software and report back to IT what is wrong and what needs to be changed. So from now on, I won’t be mentioning the observations and data capturing anymore as we do this daily on an ongoing basis. For the rest of Monday we did some filing and other admin functions to make the work a little more streamlined.
Tuesday was a great experience. The day started off slowly but just after lunch it gathered some speed and soon we were ankle deep in it… At about half past one an accident occurred at the south side of the site, at an area known as the process water dam. A 10 ton Tipper Truck was hauling a load of backfill over the dam wall and had to make a left turn off the wall and onto the access ramp to continue to the area where the backfill had to be offloaded. According to the evidence, the driver turned too sharply and when the spotter in that area indicated to him to stop, the momentum from the load coming to a sudden halt caused the truck to lose traction, leave the road on the access ramp and overturned one and a half times. The truck came to rest on its right hand side. The driver had his safety belt on at the time of the accident preventing serious injury. In the area where the truck ended up, there were some workers who were doing concrete work, but luckily none of them were struck by the rolling truck as it came to rest a few metres from them. When I arrived at the scene, I started taking photo’s as the driver had already been removed from the truck and placed in a recovery position. The scene of the accident had been barricaded, but the spectator value caused a lot of workers to down tools temporarily and as a result production also slowed to a crawl. For the rest of the week I was exposed to the principles that we learnt in Incident Investigation. The cost of loss (iceberg principle) was also clear in the process of clearing the scene, gathering evidence, medical costs, time spent on the investigation by a number of people, travel costs for the SHEQ Manager from Civcon, accommodation for him and another Safety officer from their operations elsewhere, etc, etc. The cost with just a relatively small incident like this is immense, and I’m glad that I was exposed to it and had the opportunity to experience it!
Wednesday morning was straight forward, as we were on site doing observations and coaching. In the afternoon Civcon’s SHEQ Manager, Hennie Mienie, arrived and asked Leonard and me to assist with the investigation. We accompanied him to the accident scene where we reviewed the physical evidence and the photos. Afterwards we went to the boardroom to review the paper evidence as well. This was a good experience and I am glad that I could assist with the investigation.
On Thursday the debriefing of the investigation took place and I was a part of that meeting too. It was good see how these types of things play out and how people handle the situation. In the afternoon we continued with observations and helped Jack Mthembu, Civcon Site Safety Officer, to compile the final report of the investigation. What is important is to plan well and do your tasks efficiently. If these two aspects are not part of your work ethic when on site, you will most certainly fall behind and have some serious catching up to do before you even realise that you’re behind…

ST&D CivCon: 29 – 30 June ‘09

Civcon Project – Stilfontein: 29 – 30 June ‘09

To start with: A quick glance at last week when we arrived at the Civcon Site. On Wednesday we arrived and things looked pretty busy already. We went for induction at the client’s offices (Chemwes, which was recently renamed Mine Waste Solutions or MWS for short) and afterwards we had the site specific induction with Civcon’s Chief Safety Officer, Jack Mthembu. After this was finished Dokes, Leonard and Thapelo took us on a tour of the site, to show us the layout and what areas and tasks are critical. This took a while because it is quite the large site. Afterwards we started to help Thapelo to populate the new BBS Software. This was nice because we are now part of only a handful of people who have had exposure to the new software. There are still a few things that need sorting out but it looks like the new software will be nice programme to work with once it is finished. The Civcon site is also the first site where the new ST&D (Stop – Think and Decide Process) is being rolled out. This is great as well because we are being exposed to some of IRCA’s new products early on. We arrived on site only a day before Civcon’s payday. This meant that the site closed at twelve o’clock on Thursday and would only reopen on Monday. And Monday was the start of the new week.
So on Monday we arrived at site and attended the weekly Site Safety Meeting and we were introduced to the entire Civcon workforce. This makes things a little easier when we are on site doing observations and the people know who we are. So on Monday we accompanied Leonard on site while he did his site visits and observations. It was a kind of coaching/mentoring on how to approach the employees and how to do the observations. All in all it basically included hands on training on the techniques to apply when you visit site and when the visit was finished, how to capture the information on the checklists and then do the data capturing into the software. On Tuesday we basically spent the whole day on site doing observations and coaching with the supervision of Dokes and we filled out the checklists ourselves. Tuesday was an eventful day with few non conformances and some intensive corrective coaching taking place. Wednesday was mostly used to do administrative duties and Patrick Ngonyama was on site with us as well. He came through to audit the ST&D process that we are rolling out on the Civcon site. The audit pointed out some areas in the process that needed work and updating and this is what the most of Thursday was dedicated to.
Although we worked furiously on the things that we needed to fix for the audit, we still needed to do the usual daily tasks like go out to site and do observations, capture the data and update the new software’s data, as this forms part of the Project Plan. The thing that was valuable to learn from this was that it is better to try and stay up to date with all the deliverables in the Project plan rather than to play catch-up once you realise that you have fallen behind a bit. It is also critical to communicate with all the parties involved in the project once there is a problem.
There were a few things that needed rectifying after the audit such as,
· updating the project plan and indicating which deliverables where behind schedule and which were finished,
· adding checklists for the participation standards of
Ø site management,
Ø the safety officer,
Ø coaches,
Ø the process champion and
Ø the data capturer.
· Scheduling the times on the Project plan for
Ø Establishment of the Operational teams,
Ø Their pact agreements as well as,
Ø The employees’ PACT agreements.
· Compiling and capturing of the site’s critical tools and equipment checklists.
The above mentioned points kept us quite busy and we left at about quarter past five on Thursday. We still weren’t finished as the usual daily tasks took up some of our time as well. We would continue with the updating of the aspects above on Friday and as with Thursday it kept us pretty busy. What was nice about these hectic two days was the fact that we were able to be exposed to a lot of the Project’s working parts. Gomotso and I were able to work on MS Project and gain a little bit of familiarity with the programme. What is nice about this is you can actually see yourself going forward and learning what the BIT Department is about as well as what the conditions are like “at the coal face.”
The only thing that was left to do on Monday was the Critical tools and equipment checklists, but we felt that we made good progress with all the changes thus far. All in all, a good week and things have been moving along briskly.

ST&D CivCon - Stilfontein

We have transferred into the BIT Department of IRCA and it has certainly been interesting since this move. I have been looking forward to this experience and so far not much has dissapointed.

We arrived on site in Stilfontein on 24 June and we started off pretty slowly but things quickly gathered speed on the following Monday.

This post will mostly be introductory and I will post my "weekly reports" that have been done as time went by just after this.

The management at CivCon opted to implement the Stop, Think and Decide (ST&D) methodology rather than the BBS Methodology, as do quite a lot of work for Anglo and they want their systems to correspond to that which Anglo implements themselve. It does not differ much from that of the BBS methodology, although some concepts are clearly not the same.

All in all the people here have been pretty good to Gomotso and I and have been willing to share their experience with us whether they are with CivCon or IRCA. This is paramount to the proper development of our skills and for this I am greatful.

So, my following post will include the info from each of the weeks that we have spent here thus far.

Stay Classy

Rayno

9 June 09

Simulate and prepare all you want… There is no substitute for reality and circumstances where you cannot predict what the outcome will be.

A while back we prepared profusely to present a section of the Health and Safety Representatives course to Jo Enslin, who would evaluate our competence. What was nice about this whole situation was that we did dry-runs to each other over and over again, and we started to know our audience. The questions that I asked was answered by model students, who incidentally are my peers and knew that they needed to cope with me in their class if they didn’t cooperate in mine… I am sure you can see how that would influence what the outcome in a simulated class would be. Everyone participated nicely, answered the questions I asked and knew what I was talking about. So, Jo passed me competent as my assessment went pretty well.

But then, Yesterday morning we got some bad news about the health of a colleague who would be presenting a Health and Safety Reps course. As a result he couldn’t make it anymore and it was decided that we would assist Mark Andersen in presenting the course as we each prepared a section thereof. I felt pretty confident entering the class and listened to Mark for a while before I had to step up. I presented this tab so many times that I expected I would nail it. But when I started it was way different to how I imagined it. I struggled to get the class to participate in any discussions and then I started rambling and didn’t really want to ask much questions. I understand the content very well, but it is a whole different story when you try to explain a new concept to someone who hasn’t seen or heard of it before. That is something I still have to learn but at least there were things that came from this experience that helped me a lot. I realised that I have to learn to pace myself, the class also feeds off your mood a lot and if your stressed they also tend to be more up tight. I learnt that I have to explain things in a way as if someone has never heard of the concept that I am speaking about. But most importantly, being in front of a real class was great and the experience will stick to me a while to come. I am grateful to have trained in real circumstances and to have taken something from the opportunity.

So I am ready for round two… Bring it on!
Stay classy, and relaxed guys

9 June 09

Simulate and prepare all you want… There is no substitute for reality and circumstances where you cannot predict what the outcome will be.

A while back we prepared profusely to present a section of the Health and Safety Representatives course to Jo Enslin, who would evaluate our competence. What was nice about this whole situation was that we did dry-runs to each other over and over again, and we started to know our audience. The questions that I asked was answered by model students, who incidentally are my peers and knew that they needed to cope with me in their class if they didn’t cooperate in mine… I am sure you can see how that would influence what the outcome in a simulated class would be. Everyone participated nicely, answered the questions I asked and knew what I was talking about. So, Jo passed me competent as my assessment went pretty well.

But then, Yesterday morning we got some bad news about the health of a colleague who would be presenting a Health and Safety Reps course. As a result he couldn’t make it anymore and it was decided that we would assist Mark Andersen in presenting the course as we each prepared a section thereof. I felt pretty confident entering the class and listened to Mark for a while before I had to step up. I presented this tab so many times that I expected I would nail it. But when I started it was way different to how I imagined it. I struggled to get the class to participate in any discussions and then I started rambling and didn’t really want to ask much questions. I understand the content very well, but it is a whole different story when you try to explain a new concept to someone who hasn’t seen or heard of it before. That is something I still have to learn but at least there were things that came from this experience that helped me a lot. I realised that I have to learn to pace myself, the class also feeds off your mood a lot and if your stressed they also tend to be more up tight. I learnt that I have to explain things in a way as if someone has never heard of the concept that I am speaking about. But most importantly, being in front of a real class was great and the experience will stick to me a while to come. I am grateful to have trained in real circumstances and to have taken something from the opportunity.

So I am ready for round two… Bring it on!
Stay classy, and relaxed guys

22 May 2009

This week was a good and satisfying one!!! We attended some product training that was organised for a few new Sales people and for some of the people from our newly acquired South American counterparts. It was not only insightful but also exciting to gain a wider understanding of the different products that IRCA offers. We were in and out of the product training and used that time to work on our co-presentation preparation with Reece Khan as mentor.

The training dry-runs were a great success and the coaching we received from Reece was invaluable! The man has a great skill in being able to speak to newcomers to the business like us and also to old hands that have been in the market for ages… For training that is something that I hope I will learn to perfect.

The prospect of presenting OHS Representatives training as part of a MQA initiative has also come to the fore, and that is an exiting prospect. Not only will we be working at getting approval internally but also, if we get the approval we will be training OHS Reps! At last the possibility of contributing has come along, and that is exciting!

And on that bombshell,
Stay classy guys

12 May 2009

It’s been a while…

It has certainly been a while since I tended to my blog, and it has been an interesting time. April and all of it’s public holidays have passed, we have a new President and mostly everything is quiet on the Western Front… or is it?

We have a running project in the Office’s Health and Safety System. So when there is nothing pending, work continues on the System. It’s like having something to do all the time, whether you want to or not. Ben requested that we compile some of the content for the Offices ISIT – toolkit. Luckily that mostly comes from the System we are working on, although it needs to be slightly reworked and repackaged. Hopefully what we have done is up to scratch and Ben is satisfied with what we have delivered.

What is frustrating though: Is being busy with one thing and suddenly something else pops up which has an earlier deadline, or is perceived to be more important and we are expected to drop what we are doing and start with something new. I realise that is the nature of so many things in business, but I am a process driven person and like to finish one thing before I move to the next. I feel like I am not getting anything done because of grabbing over here … leaving there … and that is basically how the past couple of weeks have gone. So it is frustration mounting up and I hope things get better in some way.

We are in the Training Department, but also not really… It is kind of difficult knowing where you fit in if you’re floating around like we are. Everyone who must declare us competent to be trainers are too busy to do exactly that, and there aren’t enough Health and Safety Rep courses being done so that all of us in the PDP can Co-Present and in fact be assessed in front of a real class. We have been practising our presentation skills, and working through the knowledge base required to be able to present H&S Rep, but time and again something changes and we cannot do it anymore. I don’t know if I’m the only one frustrated by this, but the actual reason it is frustrating me is the time that we have spent on this without having much to show for it. I know we have done a wide array of qualifications through IRCA and we have the knowledge that we gained from that to show, but practically there isn’t much.

On the horizon however, is the prospect of us going to one of the BIT projects and working there. This will hopefully contribute a lot toward equipping us to a larger extent with the practical side of Health and Safety, and Loss control. I think that will be a little bit more structured than what we are busy with at the moment. My idea of what BIT is … it is a process. Something that you start and work on until the changes that you want to see are in fact in place, then you move on and start with the next project. Now, I might be completely wrong but that is just my idea of things.

Until today mostly everything that we have done has taken place as a group. Today we were handed our first individual assignment, and that is a presentation to ExCo on your personal view of the best way to continue with the Office’s Health and Safety System. Basically that breaks down to who must accept responsibility for it, etc. Up to now the whole group work setup was a frustration point in itself. Because the outcome delivered always reflects the efforts and competence of the group as a whole, and that is not the case in the real world… Sometimes there are groups that function well and spread the work amongst each other, but if the group you are designated to work in always has work to be re-done it starts working one’s nerves. Obviously sometimes one person will need to do more work than another and next time the roles switch, but if that doesn’t happen you start looking why that happens… Anyway, I’m not going to carry on whinging like this, but sometime one needs to let out what is building up, otherwise it might just consume you. Let me just say this, I am glad for this individual assignment, as the quality everyone’s work will only reflect on that single person and no one else.

On the other hand, as I have come to see more of the systems in IRCA as a result of my own inquisitive browsing on the servers I have seen the HQMS and the EBMS. These two programs/systems interest me immensely and I cannot wait to start training on them. The concept of a smooth running business ,or Business Continuity as the learned people call it, lies close to my heart and interest. So hopefully we will be able to work on that soon.

So from me, until next time, go well

9 April 09

The end of a short week, but a good one nevertheless.

From Monday we really got into the final framework presentation of the H&S System. Putting the finishing touches on the framework and accordingly making sure that everyone knows what is expected of them and how they should convey our ideas to Management. It was fun and from the time when we started putting our ideas is a process flow it made more sense to all us. It showed us where to from here…it made it easier to identify what was missing, etc. Although there were some points that we needed to add afterwards, all in all the presentation went well and we were able to communicate our ideas better than last time. Personally I am really happy with the way things went, and I think I speak on behalf of all of us in the PDP.

Where we are now, is where the tire meets the road. We need to refine the system even more, but that comes with working it more. The real implementation of the system starts now, and we’ll have to see how that pans out, but we are confident and if we stick to the framework, and we apply ourselves, I am confident that something good will be the end result! We will write about the progress as we go along, but for now it is time to enjoy the Easter Weekend.

Drive Safe and Stay Classy Guys

2 April 09

A new born week…..

This week, our Coordinator and his wife had their first baby! Congratulations Wesley and Tarryn, we share your joy! Apart from that we did some training observations this week and worked more on IRCA’s Health and Safety System.

Well the observations were just that, observations. We accompanied the students from 8am to midday. This gave us plenty of time to thoroughly observe and see what skills the trainer uses to get his message across to the learners. I think it was valuable and we all learnt something from the observations, whether it be how to do things better or not how to do things….

With regard to the Health and Safety system – I feel like we made decent progress this week, but we are still sometimes disagreeing on what should be first and what should follow, etc. But that was quickly sorted out, as we asked some knowledgeable people about it and they made it clearer for us. We had our starting point sorted but now, being able to distinguish what was supposed to be in the framework and what not, was the next stumbling stone. I think what was most valuable this week, was the way we communicated amongst each other and how we were able to arrive at some point of agreement of how things were to be done and how we wanted to move forward. As with all group exercises some people moved to the background to some extent, but in time the participation picked up and we all made some kind of contribution.

So all in all, I think this was a good week, and hopefully what we have included in our framework presentation makes the cut, because it was not only scrutinised by all of us, but also by some more experienced people who thought it was in pretty much in line.

So I hope everyone has a good Friday and weekend.
Stay classy guys….

27 March 09

And so, another week comes to an end...

We worked on the Riskmaq assignments again, and luckily we are in the home stretch now. The fourth assignment, as anticipated, caused some frustration and it was pretty long as well! Because we didn’t have access to a functioning Health and Safety System, we couldn’t examine or review the documented measures that should be in place for a H&S Representative to function properly. Instead we interviewed Carel and Francois on Wednesday, and that was a situation...let me tell you. Anyway, after reviewing the questions that we asked, we eventually got what we needed and mostly finished the fourth assignment on Thursday.

In conjunction with the assignments, we also worked on the OHS System that we must develop and implement for IRCA. Unfortunately, none of us have ever been part of the implementation of such a system, and due to this we spent a whole lot of time throwing ideas around, debating the angle of approach, and basically trying to convince all the people around you that you had the right idea and it should be done in this way..... Honestly, I think we wasted time, BUT, I realised that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to re-invent the wheel!!!!! Together with this we were getting floating suggestions from people that were complicating our thoughts so much, that every time we started a conversation we started from scratch. It is imperative, that when you want someone to learn something by doing the work, the people who advise on the matters relating to the work must speak from the same voice! If two different people advise two different things to someone who doesn’t know much about the subject, it is CONFUSING!

But anyway, I made a few calls, spoke to some people, and within a day, I felt like we made more progress with this system, than we did in a month and a half! I mean, we’ve got all this people at our disposal, why not use them.(Might I add: Use them correctly.) I think everyone was so focused on doing it their way, and doing it themselves that no-one even thought of the idea of tapping the knowledge of people other than the mentors. I mean seriously, if we had started doing this whole system piece by piece – first a very general framework, then assessing what is already in place, then doing a new risk assessment and gap analysis, then moving on the ways to mitigate the identified risks, and then... – we would’ve been much further than what we are at this stage! I concede that “process” in blue is extremely simple, but I’ve heard so many times from different people that “Simple is good in Safety”, and “Don’t over complicate things!”

I’ve learnt a helluva lot, but it could have been done in a much shorter time, and in the long run that would make us competent in a shorter time, and in so doing IRCA would see return on investment much faster too! Don’t get me wrong, I value the experience and the learning immensely, I just feel it could have been done in a more effective way.

Now how was that for a clearing of the throat! I just hope I don’t sound negative! On the contrary, I would much rather be faced with challenges like these and have fun solving the problems, than working somewhere where you are yelled at, working under stressful conditions and worst of all not enjoying what you’re doing. I am having a ball here, and I know the other people are too. So all in all, it was a busy week, and we got stuck in thoroughly and that, with Wesley being away for two days. Anyway, I enjoyed it, but now it is time to enjoy the weekend. So in time old fashion,

Stay Classy Guys.

25 March 09

This morning we got off to flyer....

I downloaded some material to assist in the development and implementation of the Health and Safety System here at IRCA Head Office. I did this while we were waiting to spend time with Carel and Francios so as to complete the fourth assignment of Riskmaq part 1.

We started with the "interview"/"conversation" and according to them our questions were not structured enough. We spoke for a while obout how to structure our questions, to get the most out of the interview, and for a good part of the rest of the day we spent our time on this.

We will conclude the interviews tomorrow, and hopefully we got it right this time round. Now, some research on the Health and Safety system and then hopefully we will be able to spend some more time on the System tomorrow.

Stay classy guys

20 March 09

This week was a little more relaxed, although still busy with some things. We did the RCAT course at the office, and Wim Nortier presented.

RCAT is seriously an amazing tool! If you search for the facts, keep objective and don’t let your assumptions lead your thinking, you can really add value to a company by identifying root causes and isolating the critical few. It is, however, not so easy to keep objective, and ignore assumptions, etc. It is a skill that one acquires over time and that was reaffirmed by Wim. I think it is going to be a good experience when we start gaining exposure to the practical use of the RCAT, and I am looking forward to that! All in all the course was good and fun to attend.

On Thursday and Friday we spent time on the Riskmaq assignments, conducting interviews and reading profusely to ensure that we do everything that is in fact asked of the trainee. It was a good thing, and it gave me the opportunity to just sit and work at it without worrying about anything else that has to be done. Sitting down, grafting and sharpening our skills so that we can make the transition to practice a little bit easier. All in all, the last week was a nice one and I enjoyed it! An important thing these days in one’s work!

We are playing Adventure golf/ Putt Putt this afternoon, and I would like to wish everyone well. Just remember the number 2 on my back..... Anyway, enough with all this competition, hava great weekend!

Stay classy guys....

6 Mar 09

The Bulls whooped the Lion cubs, we’re still top of the log and this weekend it is the mermaids from Cape Town’s turn! Come and see how we Dutchmen play rugby Watson, and by the way, look out for the naartjies boet. Well, let’s forget about the trivial things for now...

This week we moved to another site where paving needs to be done. A smaller site, but still no respect for health and safety, on the contrary. Where we spent this week there wasn’t even an induction. The bright, never had this high vis bib do any work, walking around ignoring critical substandard acts – Safety officers were present here for about 15 minutes of the whole week. I can understand why people get so pi$$ed off with Safety, because it is still a finger pointing kind of thing. The way people approach Health and Safety makes their workers feel like it is a waste of time. I wonder what it would take for these people to start taking safety seriously. This is going to sound bad, but I wonder if someone died on site, and the company responsible was taken apart in court because of their uselessness and ignorance if they would start doing something. I am furious as I am writing this. I can’t believe these people. I hope I can start making a difference soon. I get extremely worked up when I think about this whole thing!

I spent more time in the sun this week because the site we are at doesn’t have these high buildings shielding the sun. As a result, I have this lekker tan to show for it! A little painful at first, but not so bad now.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Cheers.
Stay classy

26 Feb 09

I am pretty astonished that my backside has not yet detached itself from what I used to know as my mostly able bodied body....Moeg, gatvol, irritated.

We started pretty slowly, observing Reece Kahn training a group of guys. On Wednesday morning though, we arrived at a construction site in Johannesburg. Let me not name any names as to who’s site it is, but allow me to note that with regard to health and safety IT WAS A SHOCKER!! Desperately disappointing that people still have to work on sites that like that. Anyway, let’s not get caught up in that as the focus was for us to experience the manual labour environment and subjecting yourself to the conditions found in the industry.

At first I didn’t really know why we had to do this but we did learn a few things. We saw how labourers blindly follow what their employers ask of them because they pay their salaries. Labourers unfortunately do not know what they are entitled to according to the OHS Act. In my opinion, somehow this has to change. There were so many substandard acts, conditions and procedures. If I had to mention all of these it would take me a week. Non-compliance with regard to work at heights was especially prominent. Hopefully some of you can one day attend a course that I present so that you can hear some of the examples that I use, which I gained from these experiences.

So, from this moeg Dutchman as Mr. L. Watson refers to us - have a great weekend, May the Bulls whoop the Lions, and the sun shine where your cattle grazes....
Stay classy,

20 Feb 09

H.E.C.T.I.C!!!!!!

This week was the week that I have had the least sleep since the beginning of the programme. Going to bed late, waking up early...you know the drill!

On Monday we started with the Train – the – Trainer course, presented by Jo Enslin. The experience he brings to a room is almost tangible, like you feel it when he walks in. And not only is his knowledge of training extensive but also of a wide array of other things! The course is truly insightful, and I know I learnt a helluva lot! Presentation and training skills are some of the most important things to have if you ever have to speak in front of people. I know because I have experienced doing it without those skills and with those skills. It makes a phenomenal difference! Anyway, we completed the course training on Monday and then presented on a topic of our choice on Tuesday. We had to compile our presentation on Monday evening and that caused some of the little sleep. Generally it went well, although I was surprised by how quickly time passes when you’re talking about something you have an extensive knowledge of. I think all of us made great strides from where we started and where we were on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we started doing a course on Incident Investigation, presented by Francois Storm. My word, is it evident that everybody has their own way of presenting! It was quickfire but I think we heard what we needed to. The assignment we received for the course is an Incident Investigation case study. Oh my greatness...does that need your full attention and commitment. It was hard work and application. I worked on it on Wednesday evening, Thursday through the day, and evening and barely finished it early this morning. In fact I think I could have done a much better job of it, had the time been a little more. Anyway, this morning we handed in the assignments and wrote a knowledge assessment. I think everyone did well in that one. And so the weekend arrives once again, nice...

But before I get to the weekend, let just have glance back at I’ve experienced so far....

The past (almost) two months I have learned things unexpected, expected, again, new, and like that I can continue for a while!!! We have been treated like the golden boys and girl. It has been good but sometimes frustrating as well. Apart from learning a lot theoretically, we have the privilege to tap peoples knowledge who have been in the game for years! And touching on practical knowledge here and there as well. I like the way the learning has been approached, considering almost all possibilities! In my studies at University and school, I have never experienced the hands on approach that I have here. It helps putting the link between the theory and the practical, as well as allowing you to gain experience! Something that everybody wants, but nobody in industry is willing to give you! That is probably the greatest thing about this course, and as I have said previously...I consider myself very lucky to be in this position!

And so, weekend.....
Stay Classy Guys!!!

20 Feb 09

H.E.C.T.I.C!!!!!!

This week was the week that I have had the least sleep since the beginning of the programme. Going to bed late, waking up early...you know the drill!

On Monday we started with the Train – the – Trainer course, presented by Jo Enslin. The experience he brings to a room is almost tangible, like you feel it when he walks in. And not only is his knowledge of training extensive but also of a wide array of other things! The course is truly insightful, and I know I learnt a helluva lot! Presentation and training skills are some of the most important things to have if you ever have to speak in front of people. I know because I have experienced doing it without those skills and with those skills. It makes a phenomenal difference! Anyway, we completed the course training on Monday and then presented on a topic of our choice on Tuesday. We had to compile our presentation on Monday evening and that caused some of the little sleep. Generally it went well, although I was surprised by how quickly time passes when you’re talking about something you have an extensive knowledge of. I think all of us made great strides from where we started and where we were on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we started doing a course on Incident Investigation, presented by Francois Storm. My word, is it evident that everybody has their own way of presenting! It was quickfire but I think we heard what we needed to. The assignment we received for the course is an Incident Investigation case study. Oh my greatness...does that need your full attention and commitment. It was hard work and application. I worked on it on Wednesday evening, Thursday through the day, and evening and barely finished it early this morning. In fact I think I could have done a much better job of it, had the time been a little more. Anyway, this morning we handed in the assignments and wrote a knowledge assessment. I think everyone did well in that one. And so the weekend arrives once again, nice...

But before I get to the weekend, let just have glance back at I’ve experienced so far....

The past (almost) two months I have learned things unexpected, expected, again, new, and like that I can continue for a while!!! We have been treated like the golden boys and girl. It has been good but sometimes frustrating as well. Apart from learning a lot theoretically, we have the privilege to tap peoples knowledge who have been in the game for years! And touching on practical knowledge here and there as well. I like the way the learning has been approached, considering almost all possibilities! In my studies at University and school, I have never experienced the hands on approach that I have here. It helps putting the link between the theory and the practical, as well as allowing you to gain experience! Something that everybody wants, but nobody in industry is willing to give you! That is probably the greatest thing about this course, and as I have said previously...I consider myself very lucky to be in this position!

And so, weekend.....
Stay Classy Guys!!!

12 Feb 09

This week we were given the task of compiling and presenting the Health and Safety System for IRCA Head office.

At first it seemed like pretty straight forward, but then came all the different ways it had to address the different problems, how it was supposed to be structured, etc. Now don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with the assignment, but I didn’t feel that it was clearly communicated. We struggled for two days to get behind what was expected of us. The assignment seemed straight forward, as I mentioned, but then we needed to make conform to what the idea of the output was supposed to be. I found it a little tedious, but in the end value adding. I again learned that communication is an essential part of business and ensuring that what you are saying is correctly interpreted by the people you are saying it to , is probably the most important element of communication.

The idea of piecing together a Health and Safety structure/process seems so easy...tell everyone not to do stupid things, and there we go... If only!!!! You need to start a the right place and then ensure that the process flow is of such a nature that it not only makes logical sense, but it also conforms to legislation, standards, etc. After we presented to Wesley and Jo, I felt like it was the first time that I understood what was expected of us. Now that we went through this week, I think the rest of the assignment will be easier to piece together.

Looking forward to the weekend and next week’s Train the Trainer. I also look forward to completing the structure/framework for the Health and Safety System of IRCA.
Enjoy the weekend and Stay Classy Guys...

6 Feb 09

ACAT, As Michael put it earlier...intense, tedious, tiring, etc.

The ACAT course was presented by Paul Mare. It was well presented in his unique way! He has a load of experience and it is nice to be able to gain some of that by attending a course he presents. The ACAT course feels a little more practical than the previous courses we attended. Although different in nature, I think it might be easier to make this course more practical than the others. Because one concentrates on the CAP protocol it obviously is more practical. Not one of the previous course made me this tired by Friday and I am really looking forward toward the weekend!!!! I am going to enjoy the bit of “rus”.

Good luck to the 7’s Springboks the weekend! Have great weekend guys, rest and then we take the bull by the horns on Monday.
Stay Classy Guys...

30 Jan 09

Oh my goodness...

We put together a presentation of a tab from the MSRM course this week. I chose to do Tab 3, Managing Risk Exposures as part of Integrated Risk Management. Apart from actually compiling the contents of the slides we had to present them today, as if to a class that are attending the course. We had two “dry runs” on Thursday and it definitely helped us all. It is pretty easy to improve on the first attempt but it gets a little tougher as you gain more exposure to Training. Although the continuous improvement is easy to see! So many of the explanations that I noticed the trainers used, come from experience, of which we have very little at this stage! We are definitely getting there though. I think, once we start observing the trainers in action, with the aim of picking up the techniques they use we will gain even faster on their level of competence. On Monday we are presenting again and I hope that it goes even better!

Wesley and Carel were pretty hard on us, but I believe it to be valuable! Rather be exposed to hectic circumstances in a safer environment and learn from it. That is after all the purpose of the training. I think we must go go-karting again just to set this record straight!

Drive safely on these wet roads guys and remember,
Stay Classy

26 Jan 09

Today we started working on our MSRM presentations...

It started of a bit slow as I wasn't exactly sure what to do or what I wanted to incorporate into the presentation. I eventually worked myself out a plan according to which I want to set up the presentation and systematically build on the contents that I've added. All the information takes a while to consume and incorporate in the presentation. I want it to be good but, as it stands, I still have a way to go....

Till tomorrow,
Stay Classy Guys!

23 Jan 09

What is there to say....?

This week we attended Riskmaq Part 1. It was interesting and elaborated further on concepts that we were introduced to in the weeks running up to this one. I think it is a good thing to be exposed to these ideas and concepts repeatedly as it generates an understanding thereof that would not be otherwise achievable. I must add that I’m looking forward to the change of routine next week, as sitting in classes all day for three weeks can get a little tedious. Mark “Shark” “Dumb Lawyer” Andersen (and these are his own aliases for himself!) presented the course and he did an amazing job thereof! The one thing that I noticed of him, is allowing everyone a chance to finish what they are saying to hear exactly what they mean... It is indeed a great example of proper listening! Apart from the insightful and stimulating course content, that is definitely something that I shall take away from this week! Thank you Mark.

Today I truly cannot wait to get stuck in and start doing the work that contributes constructively to the cause of IRCA! All in due time though, I realise that. But I do still feel excited about the time that it will happen! I think I gained about 3 kilo’s this week with all the good food at lunch time! I would like to thank Ina and Zante for all their work and preparation. Thank you, we all ate like kings!

The assessment was fair and I think it covered the core of what Part one is about. We received our first assignment assessments as well and I think it is going to be interesting to see what doing it is going to be like. We gain a lot as we go, regarding the type of material in the courses, the amount of work related to the specific course and how it is going to be like once we have some assignments to do together with our other tasks. Thus far it seems as if all of us are coping pretty well and I hope it stays that way! Nothing like that feeling of running around like a beheaded chicken!!!

Anyway, I think I pretty much covered my thoughts and what I wanted to say and so....in time old fashion, have a great weekend and,
You Stay Classy Guys!

16 Jan 09

TGIF! Another week, another course! And what’s great about it, is that I am actually ready for more!

Being in a position to learn techniques that save lives is an enormous privilege! But apart from the privilege to be here... the gaining of this knowledge gives one the power to make a difference in the world! It reminds me of Peter Parker’s Uncle in the movie Spiderman, where he said to Peter: “With great power, comes great responsibility!” To me that is truly what SHEQ management is about.

After the first two weeks I would really like to say thank you to the people that have granted me this possibility! They know who they are, and I will still thank them many times in person. Just hope they don’t get bored with it!!! J. The programme is professionally administered and managed. I sometimes don’t feel worthy of all the attention, but I soon realised that this is what IRCA is all about! Giving the necessary attention to the tasks and people at hand....and much more than what is necessary! I am so proud to become part of that culture!

We wrote the MSRM assessment today, and my feeling was initially that it went well. Did I achieve my goal???.... Well yes, and I am proud of it. Allow me my moment to gloat! The course was insightful and I enjoyed it. It does sometimes feel like a long process but if one keeps one’s eye on the goal it makes it manageable!

With regard to Pieter Hammann, our trainer: He definitely has a wealth of experience! I learnt a lot from him this week. I would definitely recommend him and also would like to commend him on a job well done. He also mentioned that we can organise a “field trip” to visit some places to see how relevant MSRM really is! That would be nice to do.

Have an awesome weekend and ....
Stay Classy Guys!!!

15 Jan 09

And so assessment day arrives....

After 4 days of grafting, the end is near. We only have to do the last bit of preparation on our own to ensure that we actually have everything under the belt. So today I’m not going linger on what I want to say too much... I’d rather go and prepare for tomorrow. I do feel pretty confident for tomorrow as the content of the course was thoroughly covered by Pieter and all of our questions were answered. My aim is to achieve at least 90% tomorrow. So let’s hope for the best!

Good luck to everybody and stay classy guys!

14 Jan 09

Today we continued with MSRM. It was a good day!

We got stuck in early and now we have the opportunity to use the extra time we gained constructively. We received the electronic copies of the OHS Act and the Mines Health and Safety Act. I think that will help with our knowledge. I am really looking forward to presenting Tab 3 of MSRM as a baseline assessment of my presentation skills. Presentations push you out of your comfort zone and I believe that is the area where one grows the fastest. Learning how to handle an audience/crowd and also how to interact with them....

Going to have a rest now, because all this sitting is truly exhausting!
Stay Classy Guys!

13 Jan 09

Well, Well, Well...

Today was good! I spoke to Pieter yesterday and asked if we can try to keep our conversations relevant to the subject, to try and use our time constructively. I would like to say thank you, because it was indeed noticeable today. We continued with MSRM today, and it is honestly becoming more interesting by the moment. Wesley told us that our assessment presentation that was initially scheduled for Friday after the MSRM evaluation is going to be moved to the week after the Riskmaq course. Good news. Thank you, I think you are going to able to see the difference in the quality of the work!

So, tomorrow is another day and we’ll approach it that way.
P.S: I am enjoying the programme. Watch this space...you’ll notice experience building up, or that’s how it feels to me. Only after one and a half weeks!

Stay Classy Guys!

12 Jan 09

Today we started the MSRM course. It is presented by Pieter Hammann.

We took a while to get started with the actual course content, because a fair bit of the introductory slides are the same as those we saw last week. By this I am not referring to the course content, even though there is repetition in the course that is to be expected. I feel that we used valuable time to hear things like where IRCA originated, etc. I think it can be good if trainers who present courses for the PDP can cut on the slides preceding the actual course content, we can get down and dirty...and grab the course by the horns (so to speak). We still need to read tab three tonight, in addition to the normal homework. I think if we used less time this morning on the intro, we would not have been behind schedule. By this I am not criticizing anyone, it is but a proposition. Please don’t understand me wrong, I think I might be a little eager, but in the end the concept of “the faster you learn the faster you earn” that Wesley explained to us, is a motivation in itself. I am not expecting anyone to hurry through anything and not do it properly, I would just like to apply myself while we’re in the course and not “waste” valuable time on extras that aren’t necessary. Work hard, play hard.

With regard to the actual course material... I enjoy the repetition and expansion thereof. What we learnt in last week’s Health and Safety Representative course is still applicable today, and within MSRM there is more detail around these concepts. This gives me an even better understanding of the work we covered last week.

Once again, I am not trying to be rude or anything, it just a question of managing our time as effectively as possible. Today’s post is a lengthy one, I admit, but allow me to say one more thing....What was the number on the back of my go-kart on Friday? Please let me know if anyone remembers.

Stay Classy Guys!

8 Jan 09

Another day, another learning experience!

What was nice today, is that I can see how the parts within the Health and Safety Representative course are repeated to ensure proper identification of risks and the management thereof. We continued with the training today and David Motswaledi presented two of the tabs (10 &11). High quality presentation, as was all the tabs Carel presented. They observe us well and can see when we are run low on gas, and then they give us the opportunity to just stretch our legs and get off our brains (which we are sitting on, according to Carel). What is nice from my point of view, is that they use good examples to give us a good understanding even though we haven’t all the experience.

So, on a little more personal level....My girlfriend surprised me yesterday from Potch! Awesome! It just gave a little more umf, so to speak. The change was getting to me a little, being a “plattelandse boertjie” and all. The big city life is something I still have to get used to, but at least the people I am interacting with at work make that transition easier as well.

We are going go-carting tomorrow for team building. I am looking forward to it, mainly because:
· I am a highly competitive guy when it comes to sport and sports alike! I people are going to notice that about me and hopefully they notice a few other characteristics as well, as that is the point of the exercise isn’t it?
· I am looking forward to learning a few things about my fellow PDP colleagues.

So remember to look at the number 2 I’ll be wearing on my back tomorrow....because that is where you will be finishing, in second!!!!

Stay Classy Guys!

7 Jan 09

Today was much more mellow than Yesterday! Specifically with regard to losing my contacts and the like.....

We started training with Carel Swart today on the Health and Safety Representative course. I find that even though I do not have much Operational/SHEQ Risk management experience, the foundations are mostly based on due diligence and best practice. Most of the concepts seem logical but I still need to get a hold on the phrases, acronyms and the jargon. It is nice though, being able to give a name to a process and knowing on an introductory level what that entails.

I have also said in a few conversations that I have had, that I think the biggest thing is going to be the ability to consume the volume of work. I feel I catch on to the concepts pretty quickly, so I just need to keep up.

Looking forward to tomorrow and continuing with the training. It is nice to learn new things and by judging how excited that makes Carel, it makes me excited as well!

Stay Classy Guys!

6 Jan 09

Today was, as the Rugby commentators put it, a tale of two Halves.

This morning was good, but in the afternoon I got a little frustrated because I was looking over here, typing there, installing this, sharing that. It made me feel like I was busy the whole time but I didn’t really have much to show for it. But this was purely on a personal level. I somehow managed to wipe my entire contact list from my phone when Wesley and I tried to sync it with my newly acquired laptop. Receiving the laptop was real nice, but wiping my contacts seriously ticked me off. One of those situations where you feel like the Weakest Link....Good Bye! I seriously despise it when I manage to do stupid things like that! Anyway...Moving on.

I think everyone “defrosted” a little today. I know I definitely had a better night’s sleep that on Sunday evening and I think that helped. We shared more and participated more. We went into the core of the Mentoring concept today. That was good, because I believe that the better the Mentors and the Mentees understand what they are supposed to do, the more successful this type of learning will be! I am looking forward to learning from the various people appointed to guide us.

Hopefully I find a way to get those contacts from somewhere!

P.S: Wesley....without sounding like a brown noser....well done on a very thorough introduction to what lies ahead! Thank you, we can all see there was a lot of time and effort from your part.

In the legendary words of Ron Burgundy: You stay classy San Diego!